Lao entrepreneurs study China market
THE LAOTIAN government is focusing on five main products - rice, coffee, furniture, beer and cassava powder - for export to China. However, production levels remain limited compared with the size of the accessible markets.
Under an agreement between |the government and a Chinese company, last year Laos exported 8,000 tonnes of rice to China and 7,200 tonnes this year, said Somvang Ninthavong, director-general of the Trade and Product Promotion Department.
Coffee is one of the country’s high-quality agricultural products that have ready acceptance in the Chinese market.
Promoting products for export|to the Chinese market requires cooperation from different sectors, Somvang stressed.
The first level requires the government to facilitate policy matters, regulations and other documents, the second requires scientific development and new technology, while entrepreneurs and farmers make up the third and fourth levels, he explained.
Laos and China are good neighbours, good friends and good development partners, while the International Trade Centre (ITC) has potential for training Laotian entrepreneurs to understand how to export in China.
China is also a major market and the biggest foreign investor in Laos, which presents major opportunities for Laotian entrepreneurs to boost cooperation and ship their products to the Chinese market.
Somvang believes that training will be useful for Laotian entrepreneurs to develop their products according to international standards for export, understand the demands of the Chinese market and examine how they should prepare for trading.
The ITC is a joint agency of the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations, acting as a development partner for small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries and transition economies by connecting them to the global trading system.
Within this context, the ITC was approached by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce to develop a training programme on how to export to China.